He's an Engineering student at NP by day; by nightfall, he tranforms into the almighty Vash from the popular Anime series - Trigun. Talk about unusual combinations - Danial's two loves: Cosplay and Engineer - are on polar opposites. His interests has certainly raised some eyebrows but Danial is one who defies the conventional. His friends teased him intially but came to accept Danial for who he was - an aspiring Engineer with a super duper cool hobby - Cosplaying!
Danial is currently doing a Diploma in Clean Energy Management from the School of Engineering at NP!
No one would dare to challenge the almighty Vash from the anime Trigun !
Danial's all about devotion. Juggling his studies and Cosplay has always been a challenge, but he has managed well and has been doing it for 6 years now! He would typically take a week or two before Cosplaying events to put together his costumes - a painstaking process of stitching and sewing. But the end-product is often amazing. Check out this costume that was done up from scratch!
He prepares to strike the enemy down with his special move!
BANG! Here's a little Q&A with Danial and let's see what he has to say!
Q: I know you're from School of Engineering, Clean Energy Management, right? What do you learn there?
A: I learn about clean energy and energy audits. We learn how to make sure everything is efficient and up to date. Some of them include solar cells, wind turbines, hydrogen turbines and fuel cells. We learn about how they work and how to implement the system.
Q: So what are some of the things you find interesting from your course?
A: We get to make a solar cell and that is very fun! First, you have to wear a suit, which prevents skin cells from going out. Then you go for an air shower and enter the lab. From then on, you get to make your own solar cell! Making it is tough, and it might fail sometimes, so it is very rewarding to have it work at the end of the day.
Q: What do YOU want to be after you graduate from this course?
A: Well I’ve always pictured myself becoming a field engineer of some sort, but I would really want to go into research and development of some sort. Solar has a lot of potential, but so does wind and other types of power. Being able to work on projects that would innovate our use of renewable energy has been something I’ve dreamt of since I learnt of the use of sunlight to generate electricity. In fact, being able to follow in the foot steps of the engineers who spent their lives improving the field and paving the way for precision engineering, alike to the Germans, would be a good way to direct my career path.
Pulling off the "cool" factor is no easy feat as well!
Q: No offence, but do people often think that engineering students are boring and dull and when they hang out with you, they realize it's actually untrue?
A: No offence really taken. A lot of people take engineers as boring people. As with cosplayers, most engineers are just normal people. A lot of them lead more interesting lives. Like in any polytechnic, you see a lot of the body builders and those who work on their physique. In Ngee Ann, most of these people come from the Engineering side. Some of the people I meet from other departments aren’t really that surprised really. There are the few cases that do actually think that all engineers are boring people, but that’s because they don’t really know any engineers to begin with. After meeting me, some of them think that I'm social and creative, and weird sometimes. Why? Because I like to speak my mind.